Autumn of the Moon
by Aisu567
Summary: I wished I could take my life back, my life is a mistake, most of our lives are mistakes. Except, unlike most, I have the scars to match.
1. Lost and Found

When I was younger, I was a foolish kid. I was three when I lost the Hunt. I was scared. I ran into New York City, hoping I could find my family, but I couldn't. I was surrounded by giant buildings of metal and brick. It was in the winter on a snowy eve when they found me. When the North found me. When I was introduced to the Northern Gangs of NYC. I was scared, I didn't know better, but I joined them. Over the time period of six months, I saw many horrors, men beating little kids no older then I. Women beaten to death by a whip. I saw a man kill another man with a dulled rusty steak knife, slowly and painfully. When I was four, I was asked to kill my first person, a young girl. She had blonde hair and bright green eyes; she wore a tattered, dull pink t-shirt, which was appropriate due to the now sunny weather, ripped blue jeans, and shoes that looked several sizes too small for her to wear. She had sunken eyes and her pale face had lost all color, her energy directed towards staying awake. I saw her rib cage through her shirt, she was so hungry, and I could easily count every single one of her ribs.

My boss told me to kill her; she was a prisoner who had disobeyed his direct orders. I looked into the whites of her faded eyes. The girl's eyes were glistening with tears of fear, if she could've conjured the energy to speak, she would've begged me not to.

"Akiko, do we need to persuade you further? We have given you shelter, food, clothes! Kill her!" Boss ordered.

I looked further at her, and replied calmly, "No, she doesn't deserve to die."

I saw the shock written all over his face, before it morphed to pure rage and anger. He quickly drew is custom made knife. A foot and a half of steel, sharpened to the point. The sword glistened with danger, and I figured there was poison on the blade. He lunged forward and dug the knife into my right eye, and dragged down to my chin. He withdrew the knife and cut right across my right cheek, over my previous cut, and through my nose to the left side of my lip in a diagonal motion. I screamed in pain as I fell clutching my bloody face.

Boss leaned down and whispered in my ear in a low tone, "This is your price for betraying us, go rot in hell."

I was angry, I wasn't sure why, but I was angry. I took my entire remaining chi and screamed. I heard gasps of fear and surprise as the moon behind of them seemed to turn angry. As I looked at the moon, I saw that it wasn't its usual silvery color on a summer's eve, but instead, a dark blood red. There were suddenly three flashes of light, one gold and two silver. The youngest girl had auburn hair; she looked about twelve, and took out a pair of hunting knives and start mercilessly ripping apart the men in the alley. The teenager who flashed in gold had blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but they were filled with malice. He ran towards me with the appearing fourteen year old. The fourteen year old had black hair and hard volcanic eyes.

"Oh gods, what happened to her Apollo?" The girl of fourteen asked.

"Knife, cut her pretty bad, this might take a while to heal, go help my sis," the man hastily replied before snatching a medical bag out of thin air.

I couldn't see the two girls anymore, I was slowly losing my sight in my right eye, and the pain turned my left eye hazy. I saw black spots before I saw nothing and slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

A/N

I was thinking about writing this for a bit, and I apologize to those who expect and want a speedy upload of a new chapter for The Third, but I'm running out of ideas on where that story might go, so this is what I wrote.


	2. Darkness

Chapter 2; Darkness

When I came to, I was in a silver tent. There were animal pelts draping the walls, and a silver bow resting on a stand beside the wall. A golden metallic deer was resting at the foot of the bed, its majestic head was sleeping, but when it felt me stir, it opened one large cow brown eye. I was still confused. Where was I? How did I get here? The last thing I remembered was Boss and a knife before there was a red moon. Then I blacked out. As I looked about the room again, I was completely oblivious to someone hold my right hand and sitting on my right side. I slowly turned my head to the right when I felt my small hand being attached to something unknown. I didn't know this person who was holding my hand, or at least, I didn't recognize them right away. I ripped my hand out of theirs' and scrambled out of bed onto the floor in means to run away. The second I moved though, I nearly fainted from utter exhaustion and nausea. A wave of dizziness took me before a pair of strong slender arms wrapped themselves around my waist, in which, I naturally reacted to panic. I turned around to only be faced by a pair of eyes identical to mine.

"Shh shh...Its alright Akiko, there's nothing wrong, no one will hurt you again," the silver eyed person said soothingly removing one arm from around my waist and lightly rubbing my back in small circles.

"You're going to hurt me like they did!" I cried hysterically.

"No, no I'm not, my name is Artemis, you remember me right?" Artemis called softly still rubbing my back.

My eyes were glued to the floor and slowly Artemis released her arms around me and turned me around so that I was facing her. She took one hand and put it under my chin so she could slowly tilt my head so I could look into her eyes.

"Mommy..?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes, it is. Come here," She said, elated that her daughter finally recognized her. I buried myself into her chest where she immediately responded by wrapping her arms around my back again and pulling me into a tight hug.

"Mommy, why can't I see?" I questioned, pulling my head out of her chest so I could look up at her.

"What do you mean dear?" Mom responded before going on her knees so she was my height.

"Out of my right eye, its all black."

"Ah, well, you were cut pretty badly. Your uncle, Apollo, tried all he could, but alas, he could not heal your sight. Perhaps in time we will learn or develop a new way to repair one's sight, but for now, you will be blind in that eye," My mother replied sadly.

"Oh okay," I whispered in a small voice before leaning into my mother once more.

I heard the tent flap open to reveal two people, I recognized one as the man who healed me, but the other was unknown. My mother must have sensed my discomfort and picked me up.

"Akiko, this is your uncle Apollo, you remember, I told you about him. And my lieutenant Zoe."

I didn't care to greet them, I was too afraid so I simply lay still in my mother's arms. A look of understanding passed between the trio, and my mother put me back on the bed, and slowly withdrew. "I'll be back, Apollo just needs to check over you."

My mother exited the tent with this Zoe person, leaving me with Apollo. "Hey kiddo, I'm just going to take a quick look at your eye, make sure its not swollen or infected."

I sniffled in response and he light pressed his index finger to the bottom of my eye, he continued to do so until he reached the left side of my lip, where the cut ended.

"As you are aware, he cut you up pretty bad kid. You'll be fine for now, but, you'll have to adjust to your blind eye. If I were you, I'd get your mom to teach you some self defense. So, if someone sneaks up on your blind eye, you hit them painfully," Apollo said seriously, in one of his few moments.

Apollo exited the tent, and I started to fall back asleep.

* * *

-3- (3rd person, very rare, as this story is mostly going to be in Akiko's point of view.)

The second Apollo walked out of the tent and to the low fire in the center of the camp, he was surrounded by anxious Hunters.

It was Artemis who asked the question that was on everyone's mind, "How is she?"

"She's fine, but, Artemis, she's blind as you know. It'll take awhile for her to adjust and as such, she will trust very few."

"For hurting my daughter, I will make sure he receives the worst Hades has to offer," Artemis growled furiously.

Apollo's eyes widened in shock, he hadn't seen his sister this angry since Heracles or Orion. Instead of the warm yellow silvery glow that they usually were they were a rich deep intense metallic silver. Like the chrome finish on a tire. They were little pits of silver fire, Apollo was usually terrified of the Goddess of the Hunt, but this time, he was messing with her other form, Goddess of Childbirth. Her child had been seriously wounded, her pride and joy. The only thing that kept said goddess from raging was the furious composure of the Hunt. Artemis was already beyond angry, she was beyond thinking straight and reason, but Aphrodite had to show up at that given time.

"Artemis and Apollo, you are needed on Olympus. Oh and Artemis dear, please do bring that little brat you call a child," Aphrodite called in a careless tone.

Artemis' head snapped up, before she quietly said, "What did you call Akiko?"

"As the little goddess lost her hearing? Perhaps someone else should take over the Hunt, but I will repeat what I said for you; I said '_please do bring that little brat you call a child'_. Did you get it this time? I would hate to have to repeat myself again!" Aphrodite said in a mocking tone.

By this point, all the Hunters had their bows out and at least two arrows notched. Apollo had his own bow out loaded with a custom arrow from Hephaestus, but Artemis just stood there calmly, "If you ever call my daughter a brat again, I will rearrange your face so that your husband's face looks like a super model in comparison to yours."

_Please buy the threat, please make sure it sinks into your little brain_ Apollo thought.

Aphrodite's face morphed from a smirk to one of sheer horror. All the blood drained from her face before she nodded quickly and disappeared in a puff of pink, horrible smelling perfume.

"Zoe, you're in charge of the Hunt," Artemis barked before swiftly walking to her tent and picking up the sleeping Akiko. Once securing Akiko in her arms, she nodded stiffly to Apollo before they disappeared in puffs of gold and silver smoke.

* * *

-3- (Still, well Akiko is asleep, so I guess..)

When the twins arrived onto Olympus Throne Room, they quickly walked to their thrones and grew to their godly 15 feet height. Poseidon and Zeus were arguing over which disasters were more spectacular, air or water. Personally, Artemis didn't care, she just wanted to get back to her Hunt where she could slowly help with her daughter's recovery. _Oh Akiko, if only I was being more careful, I shouldn't have let you run off like that._

_"_**SILENCE!**" Zeus bellowed.

"Wow brother, your hopeless dramatics are FINALLY useful for something, who would've thought that!" Hades called from his simple guest throne.

"Shut up brother, we are here to discuss the issue of Artemis and her daughter."

"Excuse me husband, but what's the problem?" Hera asked. Everyone's eyes widened in shock, Hera was never nice to either Apollo nor Artemis, she found them particularly distasteful as they were both children of the same woman in which whom Zeus cheated on Hera for, Leto.

"What do you mean?" Zeus asked after he had gotten over his shock.

"While I am not going to make it a habit to be nice to Artemis, her daughter has suffered a fate worse then death if you ask me. She was separated from her mother at a young age, then asked to kill a Daughter of Ceres, on top of that, she has been horrendously scarred." At the mention of Ceres, the Olympians shifted to there Roman forms, before shifting back.

"She didn't kill my daughter? I hate these Ancient Laws, I would help her.." Demeter trailed off.

"Demeter, your daughter currently resides in my Hunt, she many stay as long as she'd like," Artemis responded softly from her throne, both eyes on the sleeping bundle in her arms.

"Thank you niece."

"No, this child is abomination, she should exist!" Aphrodite shrieked from her throne.

"Oh we could go about this for years.." Zeus groaned.

"Brother, how about we just put it to a vote? I mean, what's the harm in it?" Poseidon reasoned.

"Very well then."

"In that case I will-" Artemis started.

"You will abstain, as will I and Aphrodite."

"But fath-" Artemis gaped.

"Does it matter? we both know how it would've turned out, you both would have literally canceled out." Athena pointed out. The other deities nodded their head in agreement.

"Hera, my dear, your vote?" Zeus asked.

"I vote she lives."

"Ares?"

"Kill the kid." Artemis was growling at that comment.

"Hephaestus?"

"Part of me wants to agree with my wife on this one, the kid is weird, but, she deserves a chance at life," Hephaestus grunted.

"Apollo?"

"Yes," Apollo said without hesitation.

"Dionysus?"

"This brat is just another demigod I have to babysit at that miserable camp, kill it,"

"WHY YOU NO GOOD-" Artemis started to stay but was startled when Akiko pressed herself more into Artemis' chest, so with great reluctance, Artemis sat back down.

"Athena?"

"It is unusual for something so _new_ on the playing field, if anything, I am curious of what this child may become."

"Demeter?"

"Yes, Artemis' daughter saved mine, I now repay that favor."

"Hermes?"

"Sorry what dad? I was texting people, Persephone is still complaining about those flower deliveries, and I have 17 calls from Phobos and Demios. I also have a call in for Bellona."

"We are voting for saving the life of this young demigod," Zeus said impatiently.

"Oh yes, I like demigods, let it live."

_Yes, my daughter will live, even if everyone else voted no, including the people are forced to abstain, she'd still live._

Poseidon looked up from the armrest of his throne and said hopefully, "I don't know what's going on, I give my vote to Hades?"

"You know Ancient Laws as well as I, that is most definitely not allowed," Zeus said tensely.

"Fine fine, well, lets see here. The girl is scarred and she will probably hate herself.."

"Uncle.." Artemis breathed eyes wide with shock.

"Just jesting with you niece," Poseidon smiled weakly before continuing, "But, I have never seen my niece so happy, my vote is cast, the girl lives brother."

"Final vote 7-2. The girl lives. Raise her well my daughter," Zeus thundered before exiting the room in a flash of lighting, quickly followed by the council.

"Awww...She's so adorable," Hera cooed to the sleeping toddler.

"Thank you, now if you excuse me, I need to go back to my Hunt," Artemis said softly as not to wake the sleeping child.

"Sis, I'll be by every once in awhile so I can check up on the girl," Apollo whispered to her.

Artemis' eyes flashed dangerously and glared at Apollo with a look promising that she'd get him back for calling her 'sis'.

With that, Artemis flashed into a silver glow and appeared at her tent. She quickly entered the tent and set Akiko on the bed. She quietly exited the tent to hear the report. Upon returning Artemis crawled into bed. Akiko unconsciously snuggled up to her mother resting her small head on Artemis' torso. Artemis gazed down at the sleeping child before falling asleep contently. She had her daughter back, that's all that mattered. _  
_

* * *

A/N

I enjoy writing this story much more then the other story, however, I don't know what I should write. Review and pass this story around for me.


	3. Willow and Cubby

Ch 3; Willow and Cubby

-A- (For now..)

I woke up to the musical voices of chirping birds. I was still in that tent, but, this time, I was laying on someone. I raised my head slightly to look at the person's face before sighing in relief, I knew her. She promised she wouldn't hurt me.

I rested my head back on her chest and closed my eyes once again only to wake up in a meadow. There was a huge forest to my right with old trees. A lone pine tree rested on a hill. A golden pelt rested on the lower end of its branches, but a dragon surrounded the base. I walked around a bit stumbling a bit, even in dreams the little toddler legs of a four-year old are hard to walk on. I slowly made it to the top of the hill looking down on a valley. There was what looked like an arena of some sort, an archery range, and an odd assortment of cabins. I walked down the grassy hill to the body of an old withered mummy. It had bugs crawling over its face and cockroaches falling off its limbs before they would right themselves up and start marching towards me. I stared at them, right before the lead cockroach was about to jump on me, I was shook awake.

I opened my silver eyes to see met with the top of my mother's tent. I looked around to find the source to see my mother sitting up with a worried expression on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"N- n- nothing," I stuttered.

Artemis pursed her lips before nodding, but with the means and thoughts of bring this up with someone.

"Well then, we better get our day started shouldn't we my child?" She said as her lips pulled themselves into a smile.

Artemis picked me up and got out of bed, before we exited the tent. I saw so many people out there. There was that mysterious black-haired person, but now there we so many more. My mother said something and all the people backed away. Strangely they were all wearing silver jackets. The only difference was that this black-haired teenager had a tiara in her hair, it made her look like some sort of pretty princess.

"Artemis, I can take her?" Someone asked.

"Thank you Zoe, I need to go to Olympus effective immediately, I need a word with my dear brother," My mother replied, "Akiko, this is my lieutenant Zoe Nightshade, you can trust her, I promise."

"Promise?" I asked in a small voice.

Artemis smiled before nodding, "Yes, I promise, I'll be back as soon as I can." With that I was handed to this Zoe Nightshade person before my mother disappeared in a flash of silver.

* * *

"So, little one, what do you want to eat?" Zoe asked kindly.

Unfortunately, her efforts were wasted, I laid in her arms frightened, my mother may have said I could trust Zoe, but not the other people in the clearing. Zoe asked several times before groaning with frustration.

"Might I help Zoe? I had a little sister before I joined the Hunt, so I know what they might like to eat," A girl of about thirteen said timidly.

"Please! I don't know what to do, I was always the youngest in the family. My sisters always took care of me, and I have never had to deal with someone younger then I at this age at least!" Zoe exclaimed.

"Do we have any sort of fruit? And preferably some juice or milk?"

"Uhh...Lily do we?" Zoe asked the usual cook, the daughter of Demeter.

"Fruit yes, milk yes, and juice no. However, my mother has restocked the cereal cabinets," Lily replied cheerfully.

"Okay, a bowl of Cheerios."

I was set down at a long wooden table, in the middle of the forest. There were silver place mats woven into a circle around the table. The chairs were an oak color with arm rests and fluffy silver pillows on the chairs as a cushion. Zoe set a giant bowl of cereal before me and a spoon. I looked up at her and she smiled and nodded her head as if to say _You can go ahead and eat it, it won't hurt you, I promise _ I hesitantly took a couple small bites before pushing away from it. I received some sympathetic glances before another flash of silver appeared. Artemis appeared from the puff of silver and saw me looking at the cereal like a disease. She looked at Zoe and they had one of those adult eye conversations.

"Akiko, do you mind eating a couple more bites of the cereal?" My mother asked as she leaned down.

"It no taste good," I whined.

"Perhaps I can help," a strange voice called from around the dim fire.

I froze and whipped my head around the sound of the noise. I scrambled out of my chair and into my mother's arms.

"No its fine, its fine. That's just Hestia, she won't hurt you, she's fine, she's friendly. Actually, now that I think about it, all the people here are fine. They won't hurt you," Artemis soothed.

I climbed up a bit higher and buried my face in her soft auburn hair. Artemis started to rub circles in a comforting matter, I removed my face from within her hair and rotated my head slightly to stare at the now apparent and quite visible eight year-old. She wore a white dress with yellow flowers on it as decorations. She had shoulder length brown mousy hair, she had little flames in her eyes. The flames weren't evil-looking, they looked really nice and happy, they looked like the warm fire pits like the kind of ones you would lite on Christmas.

"Here, eat this little one," Hestia said warmly, handing me a small bag.

I looked at it cautiously before sniffing it. I gazed at my mom and she nodded enthusiastically. I opened the bag and grabbed a small piece of food. It was about the side of a quarter and orange. It reminded me of an orange. I popped it into my mouth and grinned, it was amazing.

"Thanks, what is it?"

"Its a dried apricot, and an apricot is a piece of fruit, it is essential to a child as young as yourself."

I nestled my head back into the crook of my mother's neck and yawned. Artemis snapped her fingers and the cereal and fruit was gone, before flashing to a giant store. I looked around and saw rows and rows of toys. Heaps of stuffed animals, I saw a giant bear that was as big as I was. There were these weird bird things, they were black and white and had long narrow wings. I also saw some four legged creatures that reminded me of the dogs that my mom owned. I tried to take it all in at once, but there was just to much. I leaped out of my mother's arms and ran over to the weird birds. They were really soft and plushy. My mother was smiling and walked over to me.

"Those are penguins."

"Peuin," I repeated.

"No, penguin. There is a 'n' and a 'g' in the word," my mother chuckled.

"Pen guin," I said putting more effort and noise into the 'n' and 'g'.

"Very good, do you want one?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, it might comfort you in the middle of the night. Besides, kids your age always like stuffed animals and toys. And while the Hunt is excellent at, well, hunting, we rarely have toys and such to play around with. I thought you might like it," she explained.

"Dank you," I said slurring my 'th' so it felt like a 'd'.

I grabbed two of these penguin creatures. One was black and white with a yellow strip of feathers under its head and on its neck. It had two more spots of yellow on the side of its face, like where my ears were. It had beady black eyes with a yellow short beak. It was about 9 inches tall. I thought it was adorable. I named it Cubby. The other one was a lot bigger, at least a foot and a half. Almost as tall as me. It had black eyes as well, but with grey and white plumage. With a black beak. I could probably use this penguin as a pillow.

"Mommy, what should I name this one?" I asked gaining my mother's attention as she was paying for them.

"Well, whatever you want. I named mine after something that was my favorite. So, for example, my favorite tree is either the willow tree or the aspen tree. So, I named one of my wolves Aspen. I know Phoebe has a stuffed chipmunk named after her favorite cookie, Oreo."

"I like willow, its pretty! I'm going to call you Willow. Willow and Cubby," I chattered excitedly, a huge smile present on my face. The cashier was watching the scene with an amused expression on her face.

When we left the store we went to a nearby street vendor, who gave us both hotdogs. They were really good, but mom said I got all this sauce on my face, but I didn't care. Today, I felt like I belonged finally, I felt something I hadn't felt in many months, happy and safe. I knew they wouldn't leave me. They promised right? And mom's never break promises.


	4. The Fighter

Ch 4; Discussion

-3-

By the time Artemis and Akiko got back from traveling the city, it was time for Artemis to go do her moon duty, so, she left Zoe in charge of the Hunt before taking off in her moon chariot. As Artemis drove the moon, she thought back to what she did earlier that day when she left the Hunt. Artemis had gone to Olympus to have words with her brother.

*Flashback*

"Hello brother," Artemis said coolly as she walked in the throne room.

"Sister! I need to speak with you," Apollo said seriously but with a cheerful play to it, covering up how Apollo really felt, "Here, flash to my palace." Leaving no time for agreement, Apollo flashed to his golden palace.

Upon flashing there herself, Artemis was nearly blinded. It was like she had decided to look at the sun from a close distance. The entire room was golden, complete with golden tiles leading to a golden kitchen. _How does he see anything in here.._ Artemis wondered shaking her head slightly. Apollo grabbed her hand and pulled her into his living room before pushing her into a comfortable arm chair before sitting in one himself.

"Sister, I received an urgent prophecy," Apollo said desperately.

"Okay? Why don't you tell the council?" Artemis asked, confused why it applied to her.

"It has to do with Akiko, I think. It went like this;

_One of the Hunt and Hearth_

_Doomed to fight for eternity_

_One to fight_

_One to heal_

_Easy to die, yet hard to be killed_

_When all else fails..._

_Remember the curse  
_

That was it was Artemis, somehow and in some time in the future, she will be immortal or something, and be forced to fight,"

Artemis gasped heavily, still shaken up on what had happened four years 10 months ago. 4 years ago Akiko was born. 58 months ago she was forcefully taken by a servant of darkness. Raped, painfully. The man had no care for her, only to get his job done. Artemis shivered slightly before she felt a comforting warm arm around her. She looked up to see Apollo's comforting bright blue gaze that was like their father's.

"Why? Why her?! She's gone through so much Apollo," Artemis wailed, tears brimming in her eyes.

"I don't know," Apollo claimed sadly nodding his head.

"On a slightly different subject;" Artemis paused, while Apollo perked his head up, hoping for some good news, "Akiko had a bad dream, she won't tell me what it was, but I can tell."

"If she won't tell you there really isn't anything you can do, you just have to support her." Artemis sighed unhappily, but nodded her head nonetheless.

"Now, I expect that you should be getting back little sis."

"I'm older than you airhead! Mother gave birth to me nine days before you. I helped her give birth to you!" With a quick snort of anger, Artemis flashed out of Apollo's golden monstrosity he called "home" to her peaceful woods alongside the Hunt.

*Flashback end*

* * *

**Alrighty folks, I apologize for this chapter for taking to so long. But I have two excuses;**

**1. Its summer..so I was outside with some friends most of the time.**

**2. I am moving soon, so I had to help my family pack up the house. Which, is you've ever moved before, its no easy task.**

**-Kori**


End file.
